Posted
by
samzenpuson Thursday January 12, 2012 @05:37PM
from the fire-up-the-volcano dept.

alphadogg writes "Google, joining forces with CERN, The LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, has announced the 2012 Google Science Fair, an online competition open to 13-to-18-year-olds around the world. Prizes include a $50,000 college scholarship, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands and more. Judges include Google VP and Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf, CERN Director Steve Myers, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and others."

The person may have a point, but I don't think they have thought though their point well enough to actually make an argument. Once the person does try to make an argument the person will find out they don't actually have a point.

It's not patronizing, you're misinterpreting. It's pointing out how awesome it is.

It's not that girls aren't interested, or that they aren't smart. It's that they are often told they can't do it. Boys, rather than girls, are constantly encouraged to go into STEM related fields.

But things are changing, and that is why it is worth mentioning. Not that long ago this wouldn't have happened. This Science Fair was actually pretty evenly split between genders, and it is a sign that gender equality in these fields

That there aren't that many women interested in science? He'd have to qualify that.

Certainly my experience. From my observation women just don't tend to get passionate about science. Sorry if that's politically incorrect but everything from science classes, science clubs to the workforce - even when there is a significant (often misguided reverse sexism) attempt to address the imbalance - I see few women who "get it" when it comes to being passionate about science. When they do get interested, I don't think they are at a particular advantage or disadvantage.

That all three are of the same sex? I'm fairly sure he wouldn't have made the distinction if it where three boys. My supposition aside, 3/3 isn't that statistically interesting.

Maybe you're missing the point. A lot of males are surprised that women can do anything other than have babies (with the assistance of males). But fear not - any evidence to the contrary will quickly fade from their memory to be replaced with the handpicked "proof" of the "understanding" or "their" world.

The world is full of morons. Cue the "pictures as proof" posts by the gene pool rejects. The sort that stupidly trot out terms like "patronizing" when they feel some "woman" is lecturing them. (which would

It is statistically unusual. No matter how much you want to scream from the top of a mountain that girls are equal in everything, females statistically do not become scientists. Look at the general percentage of male scientists to female scientists. It's not that they're incapable of science, that they're dumber, or any nonsense like that, it's just that far more men get into the field then women for a degree of personal reasons. Whatever it stems from doesn't take away from the fact that girls dominating a

Did they -- consciously or unconsciously -- give them extra points for being female?
I've often seen in coed organizations that if a male and female or competing for a similar award (a job, bonus, etc.) and have the same qualifications, the female will often win it because it looks better for the organization ("LOOK! We have females in high positions here!").

Out of all the places he could work, where do you think he should work?

I haven't thought much about it, nor is it relevant to the line of questioning. It is clear that he has many other opportunities and what I am interested in is why he made his particular choice.

Where do you think he should not work due to moral qualms?

At the very least, Google.

Why should he give two shits what you think?

I know it is common today to judge a man on many things, but it still seems reasonable to me to judge a man on his choices. And we make those judgments not to condemn or to beatify but in order that we might learn and improve ourselves. Whet

By entering into this contest, you agree that all research and/or invention submitted becomes the intellectual property of Google, and that any and all profits made from the sale of said research/invention, past present and future, will be paid directly to Google.

Some of my favorites:"By participating in this Contest, you agree and hereby grant Google permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and publicly display your Contest submissions for any purpose, such as, but not limited to, press and media communications, without any compensation or attribution to you. You also agree to participate in any media or promotional activity regard

Ok slashdotters, I've had no luck getting this question answered elsewhere so I might as well try here. My son is very interested in coding. He's competent in Java and he's picking up c quite well. He's taken an interest in GPU programming and I know over the next year he will do OK with those concepts too (I've been able to get both OpenCL and CUDA code up and running). In other words, we've got the computer end of a sci fair project pretty well established. The problem is that while I know generally what bioinformatics is all about, I have no background or resources in the appropriate biology to help him find a worthy project.

Ideally, what he wants is 1) a bioinformatics problem with a large data set (yes I realize that is redundant by definition) 2) one that would benefit from GPU programming 3) a problem that makes some kind of physical testable prediction that could be tested.

Last year a kid (from Canada?) did a drug interaction study where he took candidate compounds and determined where on a protein they would attach. From that he found two compounds that could mate at the same time because their locations did not interfere. Thus increasing the effectivity. He actually clinically tested "his" drug on cells. Pretty impressive. I'm not expecting my son to reach that level but I'd like to find something real world and challenging that couples computer science with a physical biological process.